


Starlight

by AnnieMar



Category: Captain America (Movies), Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-17
Updated: 2018-06-17
Packaged: 2019-05-24 09:44:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14952287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnieMar/pseuds/AnnieMar
Summary: Darcy enlists an unlikely ally in order to help save the fate of the universe.Sequel to "Cherry Bomb" but it also stands on its own. Three years after Darcy and Loki's adventure on Knowhere, where he saved her from an uncertain fate, it's her turn to save him ... and many many others. She decides to use the guy who took down the Avengers, a human with no superpowers or enhancements, to help her take down perhaps the most powerful force in the universe. Relationships are not all that they seem, however, as she looks back on new bonds and loyalties that had been formed between then and now.*Infinity War spoilers and canon deaths/maybe-deaths apply.





	Starlight

**Author's Note:**

> This is my gift to the fandom. To all my MCU readers, new and old, ones that have been with me from the very beginning, ones that keep nudging me ... 'hey, hey you, you still write?'
> 
> It's for those of us waiting with bated breath for a whole year, to see what happens to our beloved characters. 
> 
> I know a lot of you are multi-shippers and all of my ships in the Darcyland fandom will be represented ;-) We'll have some Tasertricks, some Wintershock, and a little Shieldshock. Who wins our girl's heart in the end? 
> 
> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> You decide.

**~~::::::...::::::~~**

* * *

Loki hadn’t been lost to her.

It had been her old iPhone she’d given to him. Darcy had known he’d never pass it on to Peter Quill as she’d asked him to, on the off-chance Loki happened to run into him out there. But she knew he’d keep it, she wasn’t stupid. She’d even put a special playlist on it right before they’d parted. One that would have reminded him of their time together, holed up in an alien hotel on some crazy space colony called Knowhere.

It was the combination of the Midgardian technology and magic that made it work and gave them a way to communicate, much like the two unlikely allies had worked together to come to a beneficial arrangement. Her midgardian skills, his magic. He’d gotten ahold of the Aether, and she’d gotten a ticket home to Earth.

After Loki had brought Darcy back, it had taken him months to make contact again. In those three years between then and now, a lot had changed. On planet Earth, some friendships had been lost, while other new bonds formed. They’d seen each other in the flesh only twice, and just as before, pretty much all of the flesh had been involved, and it had been as crazy and passionate as that first encounter. With Loki, there were many forms of communication it seemed, and they had forged a connection both emotional and tangible. She could hold him in her hand now, or at least a version of him that was on her phone, the side that was Midgardian technology. The magic part of the equation was in the bright-green stone he’d given her, a bit of a booster, he’d explained. She wore it around her neck, and with the two pieces combined, and with a little adjusting, they could speak to one another under the right conditions.

Darcy had been in Rome when she’d gotten the familiar signal, and her heart sped up as her iPhone rang along with the soft and heated vibration of the stone around her neck.

“Loki?”

She had to repeat his name several times and run up to the roof of the little flat she’d been staying in, before hearing his voice. Always that smooth baritone wrapping around her like dark silken sheets.

“ _Darcy, darling_.”

She closed her eyes and savored the sound, as one would do so before letting a dark Belgian chocolate melt on your tongue. “Darling, listen. We are coming to Midgard,” he explained quickly, no time for long sentimental greetings. “Where would be the best place to receive several hundred Asgardians, do you think?”

She instantly opened her eyes back up with all thoughts of chocolate leaving her mind. “What?!”

After a frantic conversation in which it became apparent that some sort of tragedy had befallen Asgard, of which she didn’t get the whole story as there was a lot of ground to cover in a short amount of time, Darcy was elated to hear the news that Thor would be coming home, along with Bruce Banner of all people, and some new companions. Loki had even joked about replacing the Avengers with the much better equipped “Revengers”, yet she didn’t have the time to remind him that there would be no replacing necessary.

Darcy had just enough time to relay the message that somewhere remote would be the Asgardians best bet, perhaps in an unpopulated area of Scandinavia, somewhere that might seem a little like home to them. The U.S. wasn’t exactly so welcoming of refugees these days and Thaddeus Ross was on the warpath for anyone resembling a missing Avenger. Thor and Bruce would be arrested and put in isolation immediately. Not that Mr. Secretery Fuckass Thunderbolt could actually hold either of them, but that would not have stopped him from trying. He'd call in special forces, which would probably then result in explosions and millions, if not billions, in property damage … so why not just skip all that and try Norway. They seemed a reasonable people.

That conversation did not last long as they’d been cut off, with Darcy standing on the roof of an apartment building in Rome, squinting in the late day sunshine. It wasn’t unusual to lose him and then have him call back moments later when a reconnection could be made. Makeshift space-phones could be temperamental, afterall. She took the time and looked out and around the ancient cityscape of Rome, spying St. Peter’s in the distance and felt excited to see her sometime lover and companion again. All the other complications could be sorted through … and boy were there a few.

_One thing at a time._

When she heard the phone ring again she instantly put it to her ear.

“Darling, listen,” he said softly, not waiting for her to say “hello”. “I fear we’re out of time. We’re about to be ambushed. He’s coming.”

“Wh - what? Who?”

“Thanos. If we fail here, he will invade Midgard for the two stones there.”

He said the name. Loki usually skirted around saying it, but this time there was no hesitation. This was serious. Critical.

“Loki … what …”

“Darcy, you must listen to me … the Aether. I don’t have it any longer. I had to trade it recently in order to gain the favor of the man who’d captured Thor and I. It’s probably back on Knowhere now … I was going to get it back, but …”

“WHAT?”

“Apparently the Grand Master and the Collector are old friends, but I have no time to explain.”

“Of course you don’t.” She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Everything had completely turned around, gone off the rails. In a moment she’d gone from looking forward to seeing him to growing irate as she thought of everything they’d gone through in order to get the Aether from The Collector in the first place. Darcy couldn’t help it, she said the first thing that came to her mind, and in anger. “I THOUGHT YOU BURIED IT ON JOTUNHEIM.”

“I … _meant_ to. Never quite found the time.”

She tried to calm herself down, but it wasn’t exactly working. She was torn between being absolutely terrified for him and also mad as hell. “You mean you’ve had it in one of your little Mary Poppins pocket dimensions this WHOLE TIME?!”

“I … Darcy … I must go. If we fail, remember … you’ve been my …”

“ _Loki?_ ” She waited for several moments for him to finish his sentence before realizing that they’d been cut off, and he wasn’t calling right back.

Darcy stayed where she was for about an hour, on top of an old Italian apartment building, pacing back and forth in the fading twilight, until all of a sudden she stopped in her tracks. Just like when you sense the pressure changing in a room, like a sudden soft “pop”, she realized that a gentle warm buzzing she’d grown so used to, humming against her skin for nearly three years, had stopped.

She looked down at her bright green stone around her neck, hanging from a simple and thin leather cord, and saw that it had turned to a dull grey, turning cold.

Loki was lost to her.

Darcy exited the rooftop and ran to her flat, only stopping to get a few things. After that, she didn’t stop running.

 

* * *

**~~*...*~~**

 

She’d traveled all night from Rome to Berlin, planes, trains, and automobiles, and finally set foot inside of her destination, feeling as if she hadn’t actually stopped running for hours.

Darcy went through the usual security checks at the Joint Counter Terrorist Centre and knocked on the office door of Everett Kenneth Ross. He was only "Ross" in the beginning of their working relationship, "Ross Boss" when she decided to like him as a person and fellow human who's first language was sarcasm, and "Everett Kenneth" when she was feeling particularly cheeky ... which was most of the time. Today, however, she wasn't feeling cheeky. She wasn't feeling much of anything at the moment, as she knew if she started to feel things, she'd start breaking apart. 

“Ross boss?”

He obviously hadn’t had his morning coffee yet, his tired eyes squinting at his tablet, looking colorless. Everett blinked up at her. “Lewis. You’re not due for a check-in for at least twelve hours. And it wasn’t supposed to be in person. What are you doing here?”

Darcy walked in and took a seat across from him. “We uh … have a situation. And I need a favor. A big one.”

 

* * *

**~~*...*~~**

 

“I need to talk to him. But not while he’s in that box. Can we get one of the offices?”

“An office? Absolutely not. Darcy, he’s a dangerous terrorist.”

She squinted her eyes to the far end of the concrete room that Helmut Zemo had been deposited, somewhere in the underbelly of the facility. He hadn’t looked in her direction since entering the space, but noticed a slight stiffening of his shoulders. He knew they were there.

“How long’s he been in there?”

“Two years minus a few minutes a day for meals and bathroom breaks.”

“Is the shock feature still activated?”

“Yuuuuup.”

“Jesus.”

“You don’t approve?”

“I mean … don’t you think that’s what they’d classify as ‘cruel and unusual punishment’?”

Ross shrugged. “Nope.”

“It’s not how they’d handle him back home.”

“He’d never survive an American prison. Wouldn’t last a week.”

She laughed. “So you’re doing him a favor by keeping him in that thing?”

Ross gave a slight shake of his head. “Not at all. Living is part of his sentence. He’s been on suicide watch since day one. He doesn’t get an easy out.”

Darcy nodded. “I understand, I really do, but none of it matters right now. I need to see if he can help.”

Everett peered at her. “Why him? Of all people?”

Darcy tilted her head to get a good look at Zemo. He seemed to be more of a leftover shell than a person. He’d been well on his way to becoming that shell when he’d been put into the box. The difference now though was that his hair and beard had grown out, so he was more like a shell with facial hair.

“It’s the way his mind works,” she said softly. “That’s what I need.”

“And there’s no one else that fits the profile of a calculating and manipulative sociopath? I’m sure there’s plenty out there not under one of the highest levels of incarceration on the planet.”

“He’s not exactly a sociopath.”

Ross let out a huff.

“He’s not … not completely. He demonstrated signs that he’s capable of remorse. He’s a product of his profession of kill squad commander. Numb, yes, but a sociopath? Not exactly. Yeah, he took his work home with him, and made it very very personal. But to him he was carrying out vigilante justice. One man. On a mission. Like the Taken guy. He was a … lone … revenger.”

Ross did one of his signature double-takes and sarcastic blinking. “Darcy I know how much you enjoy memes, so I’m just going to say ‘cool motive, still murder’ and I’m sure you’ll know what I’m talking about.”

She nodded emphatically. “Oh yes, one of my favorites, and of course I realize that, but we have priorities here, like saving humanity and many other unknown sentient beings all across the universe. I can’t even begin to describe to you how much time we don’t have to argue about this. Blah blah terrorist, or blah blah misguided dark and brooding vigilante hellbent on revenge, whatever, it doesn’t matter at this point. And no, there’s no one else I know of. This guy, It’s like the world is a chessboard for him. He can predict an unnatural amount of moves and counter moves miles ahead of his opponent. It’s like, if reading between the lines were a language, he would be fluent in it. The master. He was born speaking it.”

She took a step closer to the man himself, peering inside his glass cage. "He beat the Avengers. He brought down Earth's mightiest heroes with mind games." 

Ross raised his eyebrows at her. “Which is why you don’t need to be in an office with him.”

She rolled her eyes. “Please. I can take care of myself, and besides, the guy can’t hurt me, he’s not armed and thanks to his abundance of daily exercise I’m sure he has the muscle mass of a beanpole, now please get me an office where i can talk to him.”

He stood and stared at the floor with his hand at his neck, and shook his head for several moments.

“Tick, tock …”

He straightened himself with a huff. “Alright. But you have to fill me in on what you know and who you’re in contact with.”

She gave a long sigh. “Fine, but you can’t disclose any information on the whereabouts of any associates of the Avengers you might learn. _Especially_ to Thunderbolt Fuckass or to anyone that would relay said info to him.”

He gave a quick nod, a bit shocked she went for it. “Agreed.”

“He would only cause serious problems we can't afford to have.”

“That seems to be his job description.”

Darcy smirked knowingly at him. “Seems like you had an enlightening experience somewhere down the line.”

“Something like that.”

"You're doing amazing sweetie." 

"Enough with the memes, Lewis." 

"You started it." 

 

* * *

**~~*...*~~**

 

After an hour of pacing down hallways, Everett was able to put Darcy into an office with the disheveled Zemo, and her first thought was to order some takeout and get the guy a sandwich. Ross made to leave them alone but paused before shutting the door behind him. He opened his mouth a few times to say something.

“What?”

He gave a sigh. “I’d feel better if we got a guard in here, Clarice.”

“Come on man, look at him, he’s hardly Hannibal.”

“That’s not exactly what I’m afraid of.”

“Like what … he’s going to suddenly find some unlikely and strangely convenient video footage that will make me turn on my friends? He doesn’t have internet access. And for two, he gives fuckall about me. He manipulates, yes, but he’s never hurt, maimed, or killed without a distinct purpose or motive and he has none of those anymore. Please let me do my job. Also, if I find that this room is being monitored I will hack into the PA system and play “I’ll Tumble For Ya” on loop and no one will be able to stop it for at least 48 hours. And you know that I can, and will, do it.”

He raised his hand to point at her and say something but instead turned around and shut the door.

“Sorry about that," Darcy said, as she sat across the table from Helmut Zemo. Of all people. "Ross Boss is a bit confused lately. He went on an adventure recently and can’t seem to decide whether to embrace the Baggins or the Took inside of him.”

The only response she got was a blink.

"And sorry for talking about you like you weren't here ... but uh, I'm not really sure you're actually all here?" 

Again, there was not much of a response, except maybe an eye-tick. 

“Colonel Zemo.”

Darcy waited a few moments to see if he’d respond, but all he did was glance down at the table.

“Colonel Zemo, I’m Darcy Lewis. I work with the CIA and I’m hoping that you might help me out a little.”

He looked up and frowned.

“Or rather … a lot.”

He stuck his chin out for a moment as if he were mulling over his options. “Others have tried, and failed, to interrogate me,” he said in a monotone voice. “This new approach is a waste of everyone’s time.”

“New approach?”

Zemo gave a tiny shrug. “Bringing me into a room with one such as yourself.”

She inclined her head. “One such as myself? I’m … I’m not even going to attempt to unwrap that one. Okay, here’s the thing. If you mean HYDRA? I don’t want that kind of information from you, I don’t care what you learned on your damage quest two years ago, as HYDRA can suck a bag of dicks right now. HYDRA is cancelled as far as I’m concerned. We have bigger problems at the moment. Though if you do have any knowledge of infinity stones that might be helpful.”

The slight frown and several blinks she got from him as an answer told her that he in fact didn’t know anything about infinity stones.

“Okay, I’m just gonna lay it all out on the table for you. You’re probably going to think I’m batshit crazy insane at first, and believe me, I’ve thought that about the situation about a million times, I assure you. But just know that Everett never would have put me in a room with you if he didn’t believe what I had to say held some validity.”

She paused and started her sentence several times.

Zemo just stared at her with a bored expression on his face that said “aaaand?”

She gave a long sigh. “So I’m pretty sure a huge purple alien is coming to earth … could be any time now.”

“Pardon me?”

“I need your help to try and figure out a way to stop him, and his mission to kill half the universe.”

“ _What?_ ” This was the first time she saw an actual expression on his face that resembled a human’s and not a zombie’s. A look of total confusion.

Darcy sat back and crossed her arms. “I know, he really raised the bar, as far as damage quests go, eh?”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter one is definitely an intro. Setting the stage. More will be explained in the next chapter.
> 
> If you haven't come across it and would like to read Cherry Bomb, [you can do so here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3947170/chapters/8848027).
> 
> I'm also on Tumblr [@anniemar](http://anniemar.tumblr.com) if ya like to hang out over there.


End file.
